Star Tour

Star Tour Customers Tour the Word with the Aid of a Digital Signage Network

The Challenge

TUI Nordic, part of the world’s largest travel enterprise TUI Travel Plc, operates travel agencies in Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland through their premier travel company Star Tour. The enterprise also includes the charter flight company TUI Fly Nordic. TUI Travel Plc caters to over 30 million customers per year providing destinations across the globe from more than 20 countries.

Star Tour set out to revitalize their brand awareness while increasing their market share throughout the Nordic region. To accomplish this Star Tour needed to optimize their business practices, nurture customer loyalty through a better customer experience, present a modern brand image and increase profitability in a very competitive market.

To attain these goals Star Tour turned to Ferd Consulting AS, a Scala Certified Partner. Together, a solution was conceived to deploy a digital signage network in their travel agencies throughout Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark.

The Solution

Together with Ferd Consulting, Star Tour realized they could save significant expense by eliminating the need for printed posters throughout their enterprise. Each of the posters provided customers with tour promotions, rates and seat availability. The posters had to be changed frequently because tour promotions, rates and availability changed frequently. Also, the process of printing, distribution and deployment of printed posters was expensive and frequently frustrated customers because the information was not current. The solution to the issue was a dynamic digital signage network that was centrally managed, provided a consistent brand image and was relevant to the various locations throughout the Nordic region.

To meet the challenges posed by customers using the Internet to book travel plans, Star Tour redesigned their stores to nurture a more collaborative environment where customers can consult with tour professionals therefore enhancing the customer experience and motivating the customer to travel more.

To date, Star Tour has rolled out their new digital signage network in five agencies throughout Norway; the Oslo agency has six screens providing a brand message and an interactive customer experience. Sweden’s fifteen agencies, Finland’s six agencies and Denmark’s three agencies are scheduled to be deployed over the next few months. Ferd Consulting AS and Star Tour collaborate to create content that is centrally managed and distributed throughout the network.

When choosing their supplier Star Tour evaluated many vendors in the market. Their requirements included: ability to manage a large and diverse network, centrally managed, unique content for each city in the network while marinating a consistent brand, and it had to be easy to deploy and use.

“Star Tour chose Scala because the solution met all of the requirements for our digital signage network; Scala had a user-friendly approach and an impressive customer base,” says Steinar Lindvall, IT-Manager at Star Tour. “With Scala we can manage the network from our corporate office and customize the content for different promotions in Bergen, Stavanger, Oslo, etc. We can easily create relevant content, including the use of our existing advertising material, and update it dynamically without professional assistance. The choice was easy for us!”

The Benefit

Star Tour is very happy with the deployment of their digital signage network. Plans are in place to expand to the remaining Nordic countries including: Sweden, Finland, and Denmark. “We are learning more about the effect of compelling content and how it affects our business,” says Lindvall. “It is becoming clear that we need to have a closer synergy between what we provide on our website and the content on the digital signage network. Content on the screens facing the street will be an extra challenge because the content will need to be dynamic and engaging and respond to the changes in the industry.” Future opportunities for the Star Tour digital signage network include: contributing agencies that sell Star Tour products and services; screens at resort destinations providing information on activities, travel tips, car rentals and departure times; and finally, a medium for communicating with employees throughout the Star Tour enterprise.